1. Health Benefits – Karate is a total body workout. It promotes heart health through high-aerobic exercise and it uses every muscle group in the body helping to improve muscle tone, flexibility, balance and strength.

2. Self-confidence – Progress in karate is measured with the belt ranking system. The confidence and satisfaction on a student’s face at the end of a karate test is amazing. In that moment the student realizes that she has completed 3- 6 months of practice and perfection of short-term goals. She has increased her confidence in the ability to not only reach goals but to have achieved another level of new physical skills.

3. Stress Relief – According to the Mayo Clinic, “exercise increases your overall health and your sense of well-being . . . and also has some direct stress-busting benefits.” And the doctors and Harvard Health agree:

“[Exercise] has a unique capacity to exhilarate and relax, to provide stimulation and calm, to counter depression and dissipate stress. It’s a common experience among endurance athletes and has been verified in clinical trials that have successfully used exercise to treat anxiety disorders and clinical depression. If athletes and patients can derive psychological benefits from exercise, so can you.”

And don’t stress about how to get exercise into your schedule. Joining a class like karate will help you set a fixed time for working out. And having goals each class will help you keep up your consistency.

4. Self-Defense – Learning karate is also learning self defense skills. Self defense requires anyone who is threatened or under attack to quickly assess a situation and react in the way that will keep them safest. Karate teaches you how to defend yourself physically as well as how to avoid physical confrontations in the first place.

5. Support System – A karate dojo is another family. It is easy to make friends when you have common goals, and work hard together to achieve them. It is even easier in a dojo because students of karate share their fighting spirit. They support one another during class, through tests, and even through trials and tribulations outside of the dojo.